Story+1978-07-09+San+Diego,+CA

‘‘That song was written about 1973, it was on our first album....did they ship the first album out here or not, ‘Greetings From Asbury Park’ ? (?)....I asked my record company once how I was doing in San Diego....they said ‘We don’t send ‘em out there, too far’ (chuckles)....I’ll be right back (long pause)....here’s a song about waiting for that right moment....to take your shot and uh....waiting for about.....15 years (?) (chuckles)....this is, uh, this is for everybody who’s working all day in their daddy’s garage, here’s ‘Promised Land’....”
 * 09.07.78 San Diego, CA, intro to ‘The Promised Land’ (following ‘For You’)**

‘‘I got in a cab in New York City about....six months ago....and in New York, the cab drivers....they got like....they have a running monologue, don’t matter if somebody’s in the cab or if nobody´s in the cab....and I got in with this guy who was about....I guess 45 years old....and he started ranting and raving to me about....how all day long he’s gotta prove it to his boss....at night he’s gotta go home and prove it to his wife....on the weekends he’s gotta prove it to his kids....and uh.....you just gotta prove it all night, I guess....”
 * 09.07.78 San Diego, CA, intro to ‘Prove It All Night’**

‘‘Tom...Tom Waits wrote a beautiful song called ‘San Diego Serenade’....and if you haven’t heard it and you live in San Diego, you ought to go out and hear it....it’s on an album called ‘The Heart of Saturday Night’...and uh....this is for anyone’s ol’55 and for all the San Diego carboys, this is ‘Racing in the Street’....”
 * 09.07.78 San Diego, CA, intro to ‘Racing in the Street’**

‘‘I went....to see, uh....my little sister, she´s 16 years old, you know....and I said to her ‘Did you ever hear, did you ever hear of Buddy Holly?’...and she said ‘Yeah (?), I heard some of his songs’, so I said ‘Will you come with me ?’ and we went out, I took her out to see a movie, it’s called ‘Buddy Holly Story’ and uh....if you haven’t seen it, you should go and see it because, like, for me Buddy Holly was always one of my...just one of the great inspirations, you know, and I could never picture him doing anything but standing there smiling, holding that Fender Stratocaster, with the little bowtie....he was singing ‘That’ll Be the Day’.....(?)....and I went down to this movie and all of a sudden Buddy Holly was moving, you know, and....it made him, it made him very, made him....very real for me, made him much more human, you know, and there was a scene where he was sitting at the table with his....with his parents and they’re, uh, telling him, I guess this scene happened in every, in every household, every....kid across the nation, I know it happened in mine, I’m sitting there with my parents across the table and they’re saying ‘Bruce....it’s time you put down that guitar and started doing something serious with yourself, you know’...and they didn’t know that I was real serious, you know (chuckles) ....they couldn’t figure out how you could do anything with that, you know....and this went on and on and on until finally they moved away from me (chuckles)....they moved out here to California and I stayed in New Jersey (chuckles)....but I can always remember my father yelling at me, telling me to turn down that goddamn guitar....he thought everything in my room was the same make : I had a goddamn guitar, I had a goddamn stereo, ‘Turn down the goddamn radio!’ and ‘Stop playing that goddamn record!’ (chuckles)....it was always like (?), I don’t know...so anyway...my mother, she got real serious one day and she said ‘Well, you better, you better go see the priest now because we can’t get through to you’, my mother was like ‘Italian City’, you know, and my father was Irish...and they sent me to, sent me over to the rectory, you know, and I go over to the rectory and I talk with the priest and we talk for a little while....and uh, my father wanted me to be a lawyer and my mother wanted me to be an author and write books and stuff....and I said, I told the priest that I wanted to play the guitar, he said ‘Well....you gotta forget about that, man, God, he don´t dig no rock and roll, you know’ (chuckles), it’s like....you better go talk to him about this because this is too big, I can´t make a decision on this, so I remember it was late one night, Clarence drove me outside of town ....and I went up on this hill...and I got down...on my knees and I said ‘Now, how am I gonna talk to God about this ?’ and I said ‘Well’....I said ‘God, now, my mother, she wants me to be an author and write books, my father, he wants me to be a lawyer....and they both think, they think that like....they say that I should get a little something, little something in my life, I should have something to fall back on and get a little something but I don’t think they understand that I don’t want a little something, that I want it all, you know’....and then it was real quiet for a little while and I heard some thunder (Max pounds his drums)...and there was a little lightning....gimme some lightning....and then from out of the clouds came three words....and it just said : ‘Let It Rock !’....”
 * 09.07.78 San Diego, CA, middle of ‘Growin’Up’**

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//